QUESTIONABLE USE OF CARES ACT EDUCATION FUNDS
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act was a desperately needed injection of $2 trillion dollars into a cratering economy. Unfortunately, when the legislative process is rushed safeguards that help prevent the exploitation of loopholes in bills are often lacking, which in hindsight was clearly the case with the CARES Acts.
For example, New York Times reporter Erica Green’s article “DeVos Funnels Coronavirus Relief Funds to Favored Private and Religious Schools” focuses on a very troubling development. Her article’s subtitle perfectly explains what is going on: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, using discretion written into the coronavirus stabilization law, is using millions of dollars to pursue long-sought policy goals that Congress has blocked.
Included in the CARES Act was $30 billion for schools that are suffering financially because of the coronavirus. Unfortunately, Secretary DeVos has decided, among other things, to:
- Use $180 million for state “microgrants” allowing parents of elemental and secondary schools to pay for education services, including tuition for private schools.
- Siphon off $350 million to struggling institutions of higher learning to private, religious or a questionable nature irrespective of their financial need.
These are areas of interest for DeVos, who has unsuccessful tried to create private school voucher programs, but is now using a legislative backdoor to achieve her long denied policy goals. For instance, Wright Graduate University for the Realization of Human Potential, which has been called a cult, was allocated $495,000 from the CARES Acts. In normal times that would have never happened. but is especially disheartening when you consider that:
In big cities, which serve the most vulnerable students, district leaders are projecting budget shortfalls of up to 25 percent because of collapsing tax revenues, said the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents 76 of the nation’s large urban districts. Its member districts said they could be forced to lay off 275,000 teachers.
In response to DeVos, last Friday the House Democrats passed an additional $3 trillion in coronavirus relief stimulus legislation called The Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act (HEROES) Act, which included a provision that curtails her “ability to use about $58 billion in additional education relief for K-12 school districts for private schools.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump have basically called the bill a non-starter. That is part of the opening salvo in a process that will play out over the coming weeks, but it is unlikely Democrats will bend on their desire to rein in DeVos, who is engaging in ideological gamesmanship at the most inopportune of times.